(NewsNation) — Following the vice president’s Election Day loss, the Kamala Harris campaign is now $20 million in debt, per a source familiar with the campaign.
Lindy Li, a member of the DNC finance committee, tells NewsNation’s Rich McHugh the internal strife and monetary confusion at the center of the party have led some staffers to leave altogether.
Li says she helped raise millions for the campaign, much of which went to digital media, polling, advertising and travel.
She says she was told this was an “eminently winnable race,” but she says it wasn’t.
“We lost all the swing states. We lost in every county in America,” Li said. “This is just astounding. This is not some like blip. This is an avalanche.”
Republican former President Donald Trump won the 2024 race with 312 electoral votes.
Kamala Harris campaign’s $20 million debt
A source familiar with the campaign confirmed to NewsNation that the campaign is $20 million in the hole after Nov. 5, even though the campaign took in at least $1 billion and reported $118 million in the bank as of Oct. 16.
Li, on behalf of confused voters and disappointed donors, has been speaking out about the party’s financial woes.
“It’s been tumultuous, to say the least, but I’m so glad I did, because if we don’t correctly diagnose the problem, we’re never going to change,” Li said. “If we don’t make drastic changes to the party, there are a number of things, not only on the finance side, but also if we don’t recognize that America is fundamentally shifting to the right, we’re going to keep losing.”
Party leadership in the Democratic National Committee is “absolutely in turmoil,” Li says.
“People are stepping down,” Li said. “And there are going to be elections.”
Asked about DNC leadership, Li said: “Almost everyone’s going to be gone.”
Li believes the Democratic Party needs a “postmortem” to assess its problems rather than relying on election fraud narratives that have circulated on social media in the days since Trump’s victory.
“This wasn’t a loss. This was a shellacking,” Li said.
Even with all the chaos, Li says there’s one person she doesn’t blame: Harris.
“She was handed this,” Li said. “She did the best she could under the circumstances. She had 107 days. I love her; maybe she’s upset with me. I love her.”
Harris is a good person, Li said.
However, “the way that the campaign was run and the way that the finances were handled — it left much to be desired,” Li added.
“Top donors have not gotten any sort of briefing or an apology or any sort of explanation as to where our money went,” Li said. “We haven’t gotten any sort of follow-up other than her concession speech. Does that count?”
Former staffers who have called Li for help say they have not gotten paid for work done from August.
Campaign debts
The Harris campaign can still raise money to recoup some of these debts and pay those who still need it.
According to the Federal Election Commission, some House and Senate campaigns end with outstanding debts, such as those owed to campaign vendors.
Roll Call, in March 2023, reported that 18 members of the House and Senate started the year with campaign committees with at least $100,000 in unpaid bills.
Campaigns must report these debts, the FEC said, and when raising funds to retire them, certain rules must be followed.
These rules include one stating that contributions designated for a particular election cannot exceed the campaign’s net outstanding debt.
Donald Trump weighs in on Kamala Harris campaign debt
Trump seized on reports about the Harris campaign being in debt on X.
“I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over,” Trump said.
Trump went on to say that the campaign is “being squeezed by vendors and others.”
“Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do,” Trump wrote. “We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much.”
NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer contributed to this report.
